Hiking in Gorbeia 16.-18.5.08

Gorbeia, the highest peak of The Basque Country, is a 1482 meters high round shaped mountain which have certain importance to the Basque people and there are lots of stories and legends abount the mountain. At the moment there is a natural park that is visited by large numbers of local mountaineers every weekend. It combines lush forests up to the contour of 900 meters and relaxing, open pasteurs of the highlands. And what about our hike with Tuomas... well, it ended up to be a quite adventurous.

We started the trip taking a bus from Bilbao to the countryside. After one bus change and one hour of travelling we were in our starting point, in the village of Zeanuri, 175 meters above the sea level. It was already 16:30 so we had to hurry up to climb to 900 meters where we though it would be possible to sleep in some shelters.

[below 2] At first, the climb passed through pasteurs and farmhouses but few hundered meters higher started lush quiet forests and it seemed that we were the only persons to be there. Finally, after 4,5 hours of climbing we reached Pagomakurre which is a kind of starting point of the hiking routes in 900 meters where all week-end warriors come by car and hike rest of the trail.


It was getting dark but there wasn't any shelters or open cottages as we have espected...! We were already prepared to spend the night under the stars, as we didn't have even a tent, but then we were hit by an unbeliveable luck. We started to chat with a Basque hiker and we ended up to a situation that we were eating dinner, drinking and playing card with five super-friendly men in their cottage in Arraba in 1100 meters.

[below 2] The cottage and our great hosts (from left): Oscar, Eduardo, Pedro, Iniaki and Jose Luis. Eskerrik asko, Muchas Gracias!



Next morning we headed to the highest peak, to Gorbeia, which was still 400 meters above us. Our hosts were coming also up there so we continued together. In the beginning the weather was very good but step by step it got more cloudy. Finally in the top of the mountain the visiblity was poor... It was a pity because in good circumstances it would have been possible to see almost all the Basque Country.

[below 5] The green open pasteurs of the highlands were pastured by a big number of horses, cows and goats. The views were absolutely relaxing...






[below] On the top of Gorbeia it was the time to shoot a group foto with all possible flags... They never leave their country or football team!


After descending from Gorbeia and climbing to an another peak (Aldamin 1375m) we were finally back in the cottage. After the lunch it was time to say goodbay to our friendy hosts and make our own way with Tuomas. We have decided to go through the area of Itxina which is like a seperate highland area surrounded by relatively sharp peaks. Our hosts have warned us many times that it's easy to get lost in Itxina because everything looks the same and most of the time you can't see far. It was also gettin cloudy and rainy so it was obligatory to follow the marks painted to the rocks. Anyhow, we wanted to go there because it's said to be a very beatiful place and there is a cave that we wanted to see.

[below 2] In Itxina. After finding finally the marked path and when clouds rised little bit, it was easy to stay on the path.



[below 3] As we reached the cave Supelegor and it started to rain quite heavily. Fortunately in cave the rain doesn't bother much. As we didn't have to hurry up we prepared a meal and we did some cave exploring too.




[below] This is Atxulaur Atea, the way out of the highlands of Itxina. Down there it was completely cloudy... As our map was too inaccurate and we assumed distances badly so it was finally time to get absolutely lost. We just knew roughly that our goal Pagomakurre, in 900 meters, was somewhere down there. It started to rain even more and therefore the visiblity was very poor. During 2,5 hours we didn't know exactly where we were... but finally after all wandering we luckily found Pagomakurre.


Litle bit lower than Pagomakurre, there should exist a free shelter, so we went to looking for that. It should have been easy but anyhow we never found it. After walking a lot of extra distance we decided to climb back to Pagomakurre and sleep somewhere. It was getting dark and raining a bit.

[below] Beautiful views from 700 meters while searching for the shelter.


[below 4] In Pagomakurre we were hit by an idea: what about the small chapel that is next to the parking area? We went to inspect that and it seemed that it was used very rarely. The portal was locked but, yes, the another window was just a open hole without bars! As it was already dark and raining we climbed into the chapel, and we found it a perfect place to sleep. Next morning we woke up early to get out of the chapel before all the Sunday-hikers come to the parking area.





[below 2] The way down was straightforward and most of the time we walked on a small gravel road. Therefore, we decided to do some shortcutting adventures when we were quite down there... Not a good idea. We ended up grawling down a steep hill in wet brambles (bushes with spikes) and had to cross many barbed-wire fences. After a lot of "Ramboing" we found the road again.



[below] Finally we got all the way down to the village of Areatza in 145 meters. It was time to sit down, have something to eat and enjoy the relaxed life of the Basque village.

Artxanda - A ride to the hills

These fotos are from the trip to the east-side hills of Bilbao.
Everything is turning into coloures here in Bilbao!

En la playa!

For me, it might have been the last day in the beach here in Bilbao. We spent it really well playing beach football with Carlos (on the left), Fernando and Florentino (lying down)!

El Roadtrip - Part 2

[below 2]...The roadtrip continued and the sun was shining. These fotos are from the beautiful mountain range between Gibraltar and Antequera. We were heading to Granada and we chose rather the small road through the mountains than the highway via Malaga. It was a good choice... For example the village of Gaucín was something worth of seeing - a very beautiful traditional village on the top of a mountain. We were able to see all the way to Marocco!


[below 3] After Gaucín we continued through the mountain range to the highlands. There we spent a good while - Miina did sport excercises and I cooked the lunch in the middle of olive trees...



[below 2] We spent one night and one day in Granada. The city has its specific atmosphere that we liked a lot. We spent the day wandering in the bazaars and on the narrow streets. Of course, we visited also Alhambra the castle. As it was the second time for me in Granada I didn´t shoot so many photos.


[below 2] After Granada we had to choose the next place to stay overnight. We passed the snow covered peeks of Sierra Nevada from the north and headed to the province of Almeria. There our goal was the natural park of Cabo de Gato. We arrived there just when the sun was setting. We decided to do some free camping so we had to hurry up to find a place for our tent...


[below 3] Next morning everything was fine. We had sleeped in a valley few hundered meters from the Mediterranean Sea; our camp can be seen in the first foto. After waking up we climbed to a hill next to our camp to watch the sun rise and to eat breakfast.



[below 1] After the breakfast we spent the day in the natural park. We drove by dusty roads between the dry mountains. It was getting hot!

[below 1] There are also fantastic peaceful beaches, like Las Negras, where we spent the most of the day. There was a stormy continental wind, but fortunately we found a quiet place behind a clif - it was absolutely perfect! As I swam and lied in the sun, Miina did some sport excercises aswell.

[below 2] From Las Negras we drove 4 hours to the province of Alicante. There we headed to the mountains, to the village of Guadalest. There we spent the night in our faitfull Citroen while the stormy wind still roared outside. Next morning we spent a while in Guadalest and we were disapointed to notice that the village is made for tourists... as whole Alicante seemed to be. Anyhow, in the same region we found these nice small waterfalls of "Fuente del Algar". We got a refreshing bath... There were nobody else to swim in the cool water.


[below] Crossing the (windy) mountain range between Alicante and Valenecia. Wind was about to catch us...!


In Valencia we didn't have time to see well the city. So we just did some shopping and marvelled at the famous modern architecture of Calatrava. We spent the night outside the city in a camping site. After that it was just long long way back to Bilbao. As we had time we visited very rapidly Zaragoza and San Sebastian aswell.

The trip was over. We were happy and stunned about huge amount of things we experienced in these 9 days.